grand moof tarkin (moof) wrote,
grand moof tarkin
moof
So far, I'm enjoying wandering around Barcelona much more than I did the streets of Paris. I'm not enjoying it quite as much as I thought I would, however. It turns out that Catalan is much more different than Spanish than I expected. The verbs of the two languages are often pretty close, but the nouns are where things start to diverge more and more. For instance, 'beverages' in Spanish/Castilian is 'bebidos'; in Catalan, 'begudes'. Given context, it's not terribly difficult to figure out in text, but when somebody is speaking at their normal rate, it's much, much more difficult. Los Barcelenos are also not used to people speaking poor Spanish or Catalan (or none at all); they don't modify their word use, they don't slow down, nada. (They also do not speak much English at all, compared to the other countries I've been in.) I was expecting far more usage of Spanish here; things are usually written in Catlan and only Catlan. While the ATMs and subways and whatnot have things written in Spanish, they have things written in English, too.

Also, my depression and gout also seem to be on the upswing; the former is probably exacerbated by the fact that while the pensión where I'm staying has almost zero natural light, which fucks with my sleep cycle something fierce.
Subscribe

  • (no subject)

    I've been meaning to post my "decade in review" and "thoughts about my japan trip, redux" and "update japan travel recommendations", and even started…

  • japan travel guide: updated for 2019!

    I've been in Japan for a week now, and I'm getting used to how things work again. I hadn't spent any appreciable amount of time on my own here for...…

  • (no subject)

    Looks like I started an entry in May, but never finished it. How time flies. My sister had her first kid in May, so that's nice. She'd mostly given…

  • Post a new comment

    Error

    switch
    default userpic

    Your reply will be screened

    When you submit the form an invisible reCAPTCHA check will be performed.
    You must follow the Privacy Policy and Google Terms of use.
    Help
  • 0 comments